Are they kidding with that question? Man, lets just jump to a future where you can completely avoid the driver's seat and look around for a second.

how about a nice reclining chair with your favorite media in front of you? To introverted? How about being able to relax and enjoy the view without worrying about rear-ending someone? What about being able to have a nice dinner with the family during your morning commute (I drive a van, I can imagine it!).

Yes, I would absolutely pay the same for a personal chauffeur as I would a mid range sports car. I'm not wealthy though, so $100k sounds unattainable for anything.

From his "body language", I'd say he's thinking "Ye gods, this seat is uncomfortable. My legs are starting to cramp up." The only thing that makes a driver's seat bearable is that you have the task of driving to distract yourself from the discomfort of sitting in an uncomfortable chair for hours on end -- or even tens of minutes. Most rail seats are much more comfortable -- if you can score one.

Its nice tohave a self driving car. Imagine you are tire and can let your car goand pick up food from your favorite restarant. Imagine there is emergency no on is around and your car can take you to the hospital. Alsoon lng drive say from sfo to LA you can let he car self drive while you relax.
These self driving cars are possibility in countries with good infrastructure, not forcountries like India where none follows any traffic rules and there are big potholes on every possible road.

The driver in this self-driving car has no hands and no thighs. Presumably the driver is "thinking" about how to drive the vehicle. :-)

The human passenger/backup driver appears to be concentrating intently on something directly ahead of the car, perhaps to explode the brain (as in the movie Scanners) of a passenger in a car that is being chased.

More seriously, even some people who buy a car for the experience of driving may use the same car merely for transportation or find some parts of driving less enjoyable. Even BMW buyers are not all interested in actually driving; part of what is being sold is image and the *potential* of an excellent experience. Some people will buy a car for its maximum speed even though there can be no realistic expectation that it will ever be driven near that speed.

Presumably self-driving will be sold somewhat like power-steering, automatic transmission, and (more recently) self-parking is being sold. In some urban environments (or large busy malls), even just providing a kind of valet service might have significant value (there are probably few people who enjoy driving around looking for a parking space and walking from and to the parking space).

It is also possible that in the future incentives would be provided for the use of true automobiles. Such vehicles might increase safety (a benefit to insurance companies and governments that provide emergency services)--earning a payment not unlike insurance rebates from good driving established by monitoring behavior--and improve traffic flow (reducing the need for additional road construction).

I enjoy driving... to a point. I drive from Chicago to Boston... and back, four times a year. Sometimes drive straigt through and sometimes stay one night at a hotel. Either case it can get monotonous and sometimes dangerous.

When traffic gets congested around rush hours drivers can get aggressive and piss other drivers off... and sometimes they respond, in kind. Driving under these conditions is tense. I would love a vehicle that could respond rationally, being much more aware of surroundings... and being able to appropriately respond in a few miliseconds instead of tenths of seconds, at best if driver is optimally alert.

Even if only one vehicle along a significant stretch of road had this capability it would help.

If all vehicles had this capability the capacity of highways would more than double, and with greater safety too. All it would take is dedicating one lane, of three lanes, exclusively to such vehicals to double the trafic capacity.

The later scenerio would require V2V and V2I and a high performace vehicle, in addition to whatever sensors and controls were on board.

As to being a boon to insurance companise, it would really undermine the 'neccessity' for them.

But Geneva Convetion treaty requires that drivers "shall at all times be able to control their vehicles," and provisions against reckless driving usually require "the conscious and intentional operation of a motor vehicle."

Hence, no reading, no having breakfast with a family (like Caleb suggested), no watching a movie for the driver...

In conjunction with unveiling of EE Timesí Silicon 60 list, journalist & Silicon 60 researcher Peter Clarke hosts a conversation on startups in the electronics industry. One of Silicon Valley's great contributions to the world has been the demonstration of how the application of entrepreneurship and venture capital to electronics and semiconductor hardware can create wealth with developments in semiconductors, displays, design automation, MEMS and across the breadth of hardware developments. But in recent years concerns have been raised that traditional venture capital has turned its back on hardware-related startups in favor of software and Internet applications and services. Panelists from incubators join Peter Clarke in debate.